CHALLENGES FACED BY TOURISM ENTREPRENEURS IN GOD’S OWN COUNTRY

Kerala, popularly known as ‘‘God's own country '' is the most, is the most wanted tourist destination in the country. Present paper attempts to identify the major issues and challenges faced by the tourism entrepreneurs in the state of Kerala. The data for this pupose were mainly collected from the selected tourism entrepreneurs functioning in main tourist centres in Kerala with the help of structured interview schedule designed for this purpose. In addition to that, data were collected from the publications of the State Planning Board, Department of Tourism, Books, journals and newspapers dealing with the subject. The main challenges identified from the study are financial problems, severe competition, climatic disorder, inadequate Government involvement, heavy luxury and building tax, very high power tariff, poor training facilities etc. Here, the author is also attempt to suggest some feasible solution to overcome these issues.